The larger ethnic Kachin organisations in Northern Burma set up an 'Interim Kachin Committee (IKC)' on June 20 to form a big Kachin and Non-Kachin political party to gear up for Burma 's 2010 general elections announced by the military junta, sources said.
The ethnic Kachin players, the KIO, NDA-K and KNCA are all involved in playing a political game in keeping with the junta's seven-step roadmap to 'disciplined democracy' in which ethnic minority rights are ignored in the new constitution. It is ostensibly being called a step at a time for autonomy of Kachin State .
The 'Jinghpaw Mungdaw Pran Wan Komiti' in Kachin was formed after a two-day meeting in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State on June 19 and 20 by the two Kachin ceasefire groups--- the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) along with the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA), an umbrella organization of Kachin nationals, said KNCA.
The proposed political party derived from the IKC will be the biggest and represent all Kachins and Non-Kachins in the State, according to KIO, NDA-K and KNCA.
The formation of the committee was initiated by the KIO and NDA-K, both of which supported the referendum on the country's new constitution on May 10 drafted by the Burmese ruling junta, sources from the two organizations said.
According to KIO and NDA-K leaders, the committee aims to form the biggest political party in Kachin State at an appropriate time when the junta allows the setting up of political parties for the 2010 elections, said an executive committee member of KNCA based in Myitkina, the capital of Kachin State.
The earlier KIO's Kachin Consultative Committee (KCC) was reformed as IKA because the KCC excluded other Kachin ceasefire groups and non-Kachins except the KIO, insiders said.
Dr. Manam Tu Ja, Vice-president No. 2 and former chairman of KCC of the KIO is the head of the IKC and it will have 49 committee members with 13 representatives from the KIO, five from NDA-K, two from Lasang Awng Wa ceasefire group, about six from KNCA, and individuals while the rest will be non-Kachins, the IKC said.
The 'Interim Kachin Committee' was set up to prevent the junta forming a political party in the current situation, said IKC sources.
Meanwhile, KIO leaders yesterday convinced several hundred men and women in its service in Laiza, the headquarters on the Sino-Burma of the need to set up the IKC and the proposed political party representing all the people in Kachin State, said Laiza residents.
